Putin is "lying to everyone" - Zelenskyy
Here’s a statement by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after today’s proposed ceasefire, which he posted on X.
I addressed the meeting of European leaders stating that the path to peace must begin unconditionally. And if Russia doesn’t want this, then strong pressure must be applied until they do. Moscow understands one language.Since Tuesday, a proposal for a ceasefire has been on the table — a silence from war in the air, at sea, and on the frontlines. This is an American proposal — a full, unconditional ceasefire for 30 days. In that time, without killings, it would truly be possible to negotiate all ll aspects of a real peace.
We talked about who would delay peace and slow everything down — and now we see it clearly. A ceasefire could have already happened, but Russia is doing everything to prevent it.
Putin is lying to everyone about the situation on the ground, especially about what’s happening in the Kursk region, where our Ukrainian forces continue their operations. Our troops have also stabilized the situation on the front in Donetsk region — specifically Pokrovsk.
Putin is also lying about how a ceasefire is supposedly too complicated. In reality, everything can be controlled, and we have discussed this with the Americans. The truth is, Putin has already dragged out the war for nearly a week after the talks in Jeddah. And he will keep dragging it out.
This is Russia’s war — more than three years of full-scale fighting and destruction. To stop this, active pressure is needed, not just talks. Pressure on Russia. Strong measures are needed to take even the first steps toward ending the war.
This includes sanctions against Russia that must not only be maintained but continuously strengthened. I ask you to take these steps and to work with your partners on this.
We must define a clear position on security guarantees. Security is key to making peace reliable and lasting. We need to continue working on the contingents that will form the foundation of Europe’s future Armed Forces. Peace will be more reliable with European contingents on the ground and the American side as a backstop. There must be clear commitments on how this will function.
The same applies to investments in defense production – both in Ukraine, where it is currently growing the fastest, and in European countries. Europe needs its own arsenals and the capability to produce the most advanced weapons. It shouldn’t take 3 to 5 years to produce ammunition when it’s about your defense and security. Please, do it as soon as possible.
I also ask you not to forget about strengthening air defense – both in Ukraine and, in the future, in your countries. We all need protection. I thank each of you who is helping us with this.
This is a very bad signal – taking Russia’s opinion into account regarding the contingent. The contingent must be stationed on Ukrainian soil. This is a security guarantee for Ukraine and a security guarantee for Europe. If Putin wants to bring some foreign contingent onto Russia’s territory, that’s his business. But it is not his business to decide anything about Ukraine’s and Europe’s security.
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Zelenskyy says “path to peace must begin unconditionally.”
More to follow…
You can watch a clip from Keir Starmer’s press conference here:
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Sir Keir Starmer has said that “new commitments were put on the table” from international leaders today.
Starmer said:
The group that met this morning is a bigger group than we had two weeks ago, there is a stronger collective resolve and new commitments were put on the table this morning, both in relation to the coalition of the willing in terms of defending the deal, also in relation to the wider point, which is the collective defence and security of Europe.
So, more commitments on the table this morning and an agreement that we now move to the operational phase, which is why the talks on Thursday, the military talks, will become the next focal point.
There was a wider agreement this morning, which was that the ‘yes, but’ from Russia is not good enough, and we agreed our collective pressure will be put on Russia from all of us who are in the meeting this morning.”
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UK's Starmer says any Ukraine peace plan needs US cooperation
UK prime minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday plans for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia must involve the cooperation of the United States after being asked whether he was still seeking a security “backstop” from Washington.
“The position on the US hasn’t changed. I’ve been clear that it needs to be done in conjunction with the United States … We are talking to the US on a daily basis,” Starmer told a news conference, adding his national security adviser had returned from the US on Saturday.
The PA news agency has published Keir Starmer’s statement from the Downing Street press conference:
Today, I hosted a call with counterparts from across Europe, as well as the Nato secretary-general and the leaders of the EU Commission, EU Council, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to discuss our support for Ukraine.
We underlined our unwavering commitment to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine, both now and long into the future.
We welcomed the efforts of president Trump, president Zelenskyy and their negotiating teams to secure the remarkable breakthrough on the peace agreement in Jeddah this week, and president Zelenskyy’s commitment to the US proposal for an immediate and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, subject to agreement by Russia.
We agreed that now the ball was in Russia’s court and president Putin must prove he is serious about peace, and sign up to a ceasefire on equal terms. The Kremlin’s dithering and delay over president Trump’s ceasefire proposal, and Russia’s continued barbaric attacks on Ukraine, run entirely counter to president Putin’s stated desire for peace.
We reaffirmed our commitment to Ukraine’s long-term security and agreed that Ukraine must be able to defend itself and deter future Russian aggression.
Robust and credible security arrangements are the best way to ensure that any deal ends in a lasting peace. We agreed military planners would convene again in the UK this week to progress practical plans for how our militaries can support Ukraine’s future security.
We will build up Ukraine’s own defences and armed forces, and be ready to deploy as a ‘coalition of the willing’ in the event of a peace deal, to help secure Ukraine on the land, at sea and in the sky.
In the event of a ceasefire, we emphasised the need for strong monitoring arrangements, to ensure that any violations of a deal are identified and called out.
We agreed that in the case that president Putin refused to agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, we would need to increase our efforts to strengthen Ukraine, weaken Russia’s war machine and ratchet up pressure on president Putin to convince him to come to the negotiating table.
To deliver this, we will accelerate our military support, tighten our sanctions on Russia’s revenues and continue to explore all lawful routes to ensure that Russia pays for the damage it has done to Ukraine.
We agreed to continue these discussions as a group in the coming days to ensure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
Putin's response to ceasefire is 'not good enough', says Starmer
Starmer is now answering questions from reporters after the press conference. In response to a journalist’s question, Starmer said that Putin’s response to a ceasfire is “not good enough”.
Earlier, the UK prime minister said military chiefs would meet in the UK on Thursday as plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine move into an “operational phase”.
He told a press conference in Downing Street:
We agreed to accelerate our practical work to support a potential deal. So, we will now move into an operational phase.
Our militaries will meet on Thursday this week here in the United Kingdom to put strong and robust plans in place to swing in behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security.”
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International militaries to meet in UK on Thursday to discuss how they can support Ukaine's 'future security'
Starmer said that after his virtual meeting with world leaders, they had agreed for military planners to convene again in the UK this week to “progress practical plans for how our militaries can support Ukraine’s future security”.
He added:
We will accelerate our military support, tighten our sanctions on Russia’s revenues, and continue to explore all lawful routes to ensure that Russia pays for the damage it has done to Ukraine.”
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UK prime minister Keir Starmer has started talking at the press conference at Downing Street. He said again that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyyky has shown that Ukraine is the “party of peace”.
Starmer also outlined why peace is important for the UK economy.
A live stream from UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s upcoming press conference has been added to the top of this blog (you might have to refresh the page for it to show up).
UK prime minister Keir Starmer will hold a press conference in Downing Street at 12.30pm on Saturday after his call with leaders of the “coalition of the willing” on a possible peacekeeping operation in Ukraine.
We will post updates as we receive them.
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In a speech that ran for 100 minutes there was one moment when Donald Trump drew more applause from Democrats than Republicans. As the president told Congress last week how the US had sent billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, his political opponents clapped and unfurled a Ukrainian flag – while his own party sat in stony silence.
It was a telling insight into Republicans’ transformation, in the space of a generation, from a party of cold war hawks to one of “America first” isolationists. Where Trump has led, many Republicans have obediently followed, all the way into the embrace of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – with huge implications for the global democratic order.
“The reversal is dramatic and the willingness of the Republican party to go along with it continues to be breathtaking,” said Charlie Sykes, a political commentator and author of How the Right Lost Its Mind. “At least for a while it appeared that Republicans were still going to be supportive of Ukraine. But now that Trump has completely reversed our foreign policy there seems to be very little pushback.”
Last month, Trump set up a peace process that began with the US and Russia’s top diplomats meeting in Saudi Arabia – with no seat at the table for Ukrainian officials. He branded Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator”, a term he has never applied to the authoritarian Putin.
Along with vice-president JD Vance, he berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, a spectacle that prompted the Democratic senator Elissa Slotkin to observe that Ronald Reagan, a Republican president who was an inveterate foe of Soviet aggression, “must be rolling over in his grave”. Trump suspended offensive cyber operations against Russia and paused military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine until it agreed to a 30-day ceasefire.
Here is Zelenskyy’s post on X this morning:
I received a report from commander-in-chief Syrskyi. Defense of our positions in the Donetsk region and other frontline areas. I am grateful to all Ukrainian units for their resilience and effectiveness in destroying the occupier. The situation in the Pokrovsk direction has been stabilized.
A separate note on the Kursk region. The operation of our forces in the designated areas of the Kursk region continues. The units are carrying out their tasks exactly as required. Thanks to the Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, a significant number of Russian forces were withdrawn from other directions. Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region. There is no encirclement of our troops.
We are also observing directions along our eastern border of Ukraine, where the Russian army is building up forces. This indicates an intention to attack our Sumy region. We are aware of this, and will counter it. I would like all partners to understand exactly what Putin is planning, what he is preparing for, and what he will be ignoring.
The buildup of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to keep ignoring diplomacy. It is clear that Russia is prolonging the war. We are ready to provide our partners with all the real information on the situation at the front, in the Kursk region, and along our border.
Today there were also reports on our missile program. We have tangible results. The long Neptune missile was tested and successfully used in combat. A new Ukrainian missile, precise strike. The range of one thousand kilometers. I thank our Ukrainian developers, manufacturers and military personnel. We continue our work to ensure the security of Ukraine.
Also today, the minister of defense of Ukraine delivered a report on new support packages from our partners. We are securing artillery supplies. I am grateful to all the partners who are helping.”
Zelenskyy says Kursk operation ongoing and Ukrainian troops not encircled
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Kyiv’s forces were still fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and that they were not facing an encirclement, reports Reuters.
In a statement on social media, he added that the situation near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk had stabilised but that Russian forces were accumulating across the border from Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region.
Russia had also deployed almost 200 firefighters to help put out a fire at an oil depot caused by a Ukraine drone strike in the southern Krasnodar region, authorities said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratyev said in the early hours of Saturday that a petrol reserve station in the Black Sea city of Tuapse was “attacked by the Kyiv regime”.
The government of the Krasnodar region said 188 people were involved in putting out the fire.
Akif Çağatay Kılıç, a foreign policy adviser to Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said that one of the main obstacles to a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia is a “loss of trust” between the two sides.
Turkey has played a key role as a mediator in talks and maintains good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, despite its military support for Ukraine. It hosted negotiations in 2022 and has offered to do so again if called on.
Speaking to a Turkish TV station, Kılıç said:
The main problem is a loss of trust. Nobody trusts anyone.”
He referred cryptically to a group of politicians, no longer in power, who he claimed scuppered the initial February 2022 talks in Istanbul, noting that the conditions under which Ukraine is able to negotiate now have changed.
Kılıç said that in 2022 negotiations were aiming to limit Ukraine’s territorial losses to Russia at about 3% but that figure now is at about 25%.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte have addressed the virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting, a government source told the PA news agency.
Starmer condemned Russia’s “barbaric attacks on Ukraine”, saying Vladimir Putin must “agree to a ceasefire”.
He said at the top of the meeting:
President Zelenskyy, who’s with us this morning, has shown once again that Ukraine is the party of peace, because he has agreed to and committed to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.
Now what we see, and this is centrepiece for our discussions today, is that Putin is the one trying to delay.
In a sense, and you will know this, if Putin is serious about peace, it’s very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire.”
Starmer continued:
Secondly, being prepared to defend any deal ourselves through a coalition of the willing. We’ve begun that process and this morning we can take it forward.
And then, thirdly, and really importantly, given the developments of the last few days, to keep the pressure on Putin to come to the table, and I think collectively we’ve got a number of ways that we can do that.
So it’s those three heads, really, that we’re going to focus on in this meeting, strengthening Ukraine, being prepared to defend any deal ourselves through a coalition of the willing, and keeping that pressure on Russia at this crucial time.”
Speaking in Downing Street before the video call, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said the “world is watching”.
According to the PA news agency, Starmer said:
My feeling is that sooner or later (Putin’s) going to have to come to the table and engage in serious discussion, but – and this is a big but for us this morning in our meeting – we can’t sit back and simply wait for that to happen.
We have to keep pushing ahead, pushing forward, and preparing for peace, and a peace that will be secure and that will last.
I think that means strengthening Ukraine so they can defend themselves, and strengthening, obviously, in terms of military capability, in terms of funding, in terms of the provision of further support from all of us to Ukraine.”
Putin has to stop 'barbaric attacks on Ukraine' if 'serious about peace', says Starmer
UK prime minister Keir Starmer told a virtual meeting of about 25 world leaders on Saturday that they had to be prepared to defend any Ukraine peace deal themselves, urging them to keep up pressure on Russia.
“If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is serious about peace, it’s very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire,” Starmer told the video call of leaders from nations, including from Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
He added:
We have to keep pushing ahead, pushing forward, and preparing for peace and a peace that will be secure and that will last.”
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Starmer says Putin will 'sooner or later' have to come to table as summit begins
Keir Starmer has said Vladimir Putin will “sooner or later” have to “come to the table” as he urged world leaders to keep up the pressure on Russia for an unconditional ceasefire, reports PA news agency.
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While we wait for news from Keir Starmer’s virtual summit, my colleague David Smith in Washington has this piece on how Trump has transformed the US Republican party’s stance on Vladimir Putin…
In speech that ran for 100 minutes there was one moment when Donald Trump drew more applause from Democrats than Republicans. As the president told Congress last week how the US had sent billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, his political opponents clapped and unfurled a Ukrainian flag – while his own party sat in stony silence.
It was a telling insight into Republicans’ transformation, in the space of a generation, from a party of cold war hawks to one of “America first” isolationists. Where Trump has led, many Republicans have obediently followed, all the way into the embrace of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – with huge implications for the global democratic order.
Read the full piece here:
Ukraine said on Saturday it had downed 130 Russian-launched drones across the country at night, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Kyiv’s air force said the Iranian-made Shahed drones were downed over 14 regions and that Moscow had also attacked with two ballistic missiles.
Kyiv also said that the number of wounded in a Russian strike a day earlier on president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town Kryvy Rig rose to 14. On Friday, officials said Russia attacked a residential area of the central Ukrainian city – regularly targeted throughout Moscow’s more than three-year invasion.
“Fourteen people were wounded, among them two children,” the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergiy Lysak, said on Telegram.
Ukrainian prosecutors said the injured children were a two-year-old and a 15-year-old.
Lysak said the missile attack destroyed more than a dozen large apartment buildings and 10 private houses.
Russian troops have recaptured the villages of Rubanshchina and Zaoleshenka in its western Kursk region, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.
Ukraine’s largest private energy provider said on Saturday that overnight Russian airstrikes had damaged its energy facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions.
In a statement, DTEK said “damages are significant” and that some consumers in both regions were left without power, reports Reuters.
Explainer: Where does the phrase ‘coalition of the willing’ come from?
Few resonant phrases are repeated in politics without a deliberate reason, and Keir Starmer’s use of “coalition of the willing” could well have been intended as a reminder to the US diplomatic and defence community: we helped you out; now return the favour.
The most famous, or infamous, coalition of the willing was the 30 nations who publicly gave at least some support to George W Bush’s US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Starmer’s decision to reintroduce the term came during a BBC interview on 2 March where he unveiled an Anglo-French plan to work with the US on a peace deal for Ukraine.
Other partners were expected, he added. “That is a step in the right direction. This is not an exclusion – the more the better in this. But we need to move to a quicker, more agile way of going forward, and I think that is a coalition of the willing states.”
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Italy would want a “clear UN mandate” before committing troops to a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, a member of Italy’s ruling party has said.
Giangiacomo Calovini, an MP from the ruling Brothers of Italy party and a member of the Italian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme his country was not opposed to peacekeeping operations.
He said:
Absolutely we are not against sending Italian troops to help a population, but I think at this moment probably there are no troops that are able to solve the problem in Ukraine.
We can only send troops if there is a clear UN mandate and for now, this is impossible.”
He added:
I think it is too early and we have to wait for it. After a decision from UN headquarters, there is no problem for Italy, but now it’s really, really too early for us.”
Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Putin’s first prime minister and now an opponent of the Russian president, said Moscow was only interested in a conditional ceasefire, reports the PA news agency.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
He rejected this proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, he wants conditional, he wants a ceasefire on his terms.”
Asked whether Putin would accept peacekeepers, Kasyanov said:
I don’t believe this, but he could accept – if his terms and conditions are accepted, for instance the stop of military supplies (from the west) – he could agree to just Indians and Brazilians and other friendly countries, troops from those countries but not from Nato nations or from Europe at all.”
He added that western sanctions were having an effect on Russia’s economy, and would get worse by the end of the year, saying:
By the end of the year, he will be a different Putin and would be more willing to negotiate.”
Giangiacomo Calovini, an MP from the ruling party in Italy, was unable to say whether Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni would take part in Saturday’s call with the “coalition of the willing”.
According to the PA news agency, he said:
I think there’s a discussion about it and I think a few hours ago there’s some contact between your prime minister and Giorgia Meloni because they are talking and trying to understand, which is the problem of the meeting of today.”
He added:
Our position now is that if the meeting is only to talk about the troops in Ukraine, it is not important now.
It doesn’t mean we don’t send our troops (to) Ukraine, but we think it’s too early to talk about this topic.”
In comments released by Downing Street before the summit, Starmer lambasted Putin over what he called “empty words and pointless conditions”.
“We can’t allow President Putin to play games with President Trump’s deal,” Starmer said. “The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace.
“If Russia finally comes to the table, then we must be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure it is a serious, and enduring peace, if they don’t, then we need to strain every sinew to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to secure an end to this war.
“Putin is trying to delay, saying there must be a painstaking study before a ceasefire can take place, but the world needs to see action, not a study or empty words and pointless conditions.”
Downing Street refused to set out precisely what goals the prime minister hoped to get from Saturday morning’s meeting, saying it was “a fast-moving situation” with a large number of countries involved.
UK officials had expected to be able to release the full list of attenders in advance, but were seemingly prevented from doing so by the complexity of organising such a large event at speed. There were reports that the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, might not attend the meeting due to worries about the Anglo-French plans to try to guarantee a long-term peace deal.
Starmer will be expected to set out to the assembled leaders details of a plan, spearheaded by him and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the wake of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s disastrous White House meeting with Trump two weeks ago. Starmer and Macron spoke one-to-one on Friday evening in advance of the summit, Downing Street said.
Ukrainian air defences destroyed 130 out of 178 drones launched by Russia during its latest overnight strike, Kyiv’s air force said on Saturday.
It added that another 38 drones had been “locationally lost”, typically a reference to electronic jamming, and that Russian forces had also fired two ballistic missiles.
Analysis: Putin makes clear Russia will only play ball by his rules
For once, the US president and European leaders were on the same page.
Grasping for a familiar metaphor, a chorus of western heads of state declared this week that “the ball was in Russia’s court” after Ukraine agreed in talks with the US on Tuesday to an immediate 30-day ceasefire.
Rather than making a play, Vladimir Putin on Thursday picked up the ball, scrawled a fresh set of conditions across it, and lobbed it back – insisting the game could not move forward until the other side played by his rules.
“The idea itself is the right one, and we definitely support it,” Putin said, sitting alongside his longtime ally Alexander Lukashenko at a press conference in the Kremlin.
It was the “but” that followed that did all the heavy lifting.
“There are questions that we need to discuss, and I think we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partner,” he added, suggesting that Ukraine should neither rearm nor mobilise and that western military aid to Kyiv be halted during the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the message was clear: Russia had no intention of halting its own rearmament. Ukraine fears that Putin is preparing to do exactly what he accuses Kyiv of: exploiting the ceasefire to rearm and intensify his offensive if talks fall apart, as Russian forces press their advantage on the ground.
Read more:
Starmer to present proposals for a peace deal to world leaders
As we just mentioned, Keir Starmer has warned that Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to “play games” with the possibility of a ceasefire in Ukraine, as he prepares to present proposals for a peace deal to a coalition of about 25 world leaders.
The UK prime minister will host a meeting on Saturday of the “coalition of the willing”, a group of nations that have agreed to help keep the peace in Ukraine. He will seek to pile pressure on the Russian president to “finally come to the table” and “stop the barbaric attacks on Ukraine” after Kyiv agreed this week to an immediate 30-day ceasefire.
European nations, the EU Commission, Nato, Canada, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand are expected to take part in the virtual meeting and provide updates on the aid they could provide towards enforcing a peace deal.
It came as Putin praised Donald Trump for “doing everything” to improve relations between Moscow and Washington, after Trump said the US has had “very good and productive discussions” with Putin in recent days.
Putin told a meeting of his security heads that improved relations with the US were now on the agenda. “We know that the new administration headed by President Trump is doing everything to restore at least something of what was basically destroyed by the previous US administration,” he said.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Today, UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer will urge about 25 world leaders to make concrete commitments to support Ukraine and increase pressure on Vladimir Putin to accept the ceasefire.
The British prime minister hopes the video call will see the so-called “coalition of the willing” come up with firm commitments of help for Ukraine in the run-up to any peace agreement and, after that, to ensure the nation’s security.
More on that shortly. First, here’s what else is making headlines:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he sees a “good chance to end this war quickly and secure peace” after Kyiv accepted a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire but Moscow said it would agree only if certain conditions were met. The Ukrainian president also urged the US and other allies to apply pressure on Moscow, reiterating his belief that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will delay reaching a ceasefire for as long as possible. “If there is a strong response from the United States, they will not let them play around,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “And if there are steps that Russia is not afraid of, they will delay the process.” He said separately that Putin “will try to drag everyone into endless discussions … while his guns continue to kill people”.
Vladimir Putin called for beleaguered Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk to “surrender”, saying they would be treated with dignity. Donald Trump urged Putin to spare the lives of the troops while he said his envoy had held “very good and productive” talks with the Russian leader on the proposed 30-day ceasefire. Moscow’s rapid counteroffensive in Kursk over the past week has recaptured much of the territory that Ukraine seized last August in the western Russian border region and hoped to use as a bargaining chip in peace talks. “We are sympathetic to President Trump’s call,” Putin said in remarks broadcast on Russian television on Friday. “If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment.” Trump said “thousands” of Ukrainian troops were “completely surrounded by the Russian military and in a very bad and vulnerable position”. Putin, meanwhile, praised Trump for “doing everything” to improve relations between Moscow and Washington.
Ukraine’s military leadership denied the battlefield claims. “There is no threat of our units being encircled,” Ukraine’s general staff posted on social media. Zelenskyy also gave a more sober assessment, saying: “The situation in the Kursk region is obviously very difficult.” He insisted the campaign still had value. Sources in Ukraine and military analysts also said Trump’s claims of a mass encirclement in Kursk were not accurate.
G7 foreign ministers warned Russia of new sanctions unless it accepted the ceasefire “on equal terms”, saying sanctions could include “caps on oil prices, as well as additional support for Ukraine, and other means”. France and Germany accused Russia of seeking to block the truce, while Starmer said Moscow has shown “complete disregard” for Trump’s proposal.
A Russian missile struck a residential area in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, injuring 11 people including two children, the regional governor said. Serhiy Lysak posted photos on Telegram showing damage to high-rise apartment buildings, private homes and a building that appeared to house a number of businesses. Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration in the city – Zelenskyy’s home town – said two areas took direct hits. One of the sites hit was a night club, he said. In the southern region of Kherson, Russian guided bombs struck a series of targets including a residential area in Kherson city, killing one person, the regional governor said on Telegram. Near the Black Sea city of Odesa, Russian drones attacked the nearby port of Chornomorsk, cutting power to its residents, the regional governor said.
EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas would propose that the 27-country bloc supply up to €40bn ($44bn) in new military aid to Ukraine, diplomatic sources have said. Senior EU diplomats, meanwhile, agreed on Friday to a six-month extension of sanctions against about 2,000 Russians including Putin and many senior politicians and businesspeople.
– With agencies
